Several NASA spacecraft track energy through space

September 27, 2013 7:18 AM

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Scientists have provided the most comprehensive details yet of the journey energy from the sun takes as it hurtles around Earth's magnetosphere. Understanding the changes energy from the sun undergoes as it travels away and out into space is crucial for scientists to achieve their goal of some day predicting the onset of space weather that creates effects such as the shimmering lights of the aurora or interruptions in radio communications at Earth.

Taking advantage of an unprecedented alignment of eight satellites through the vast magnetic environment that surrounds Earth in space, including NASA's ARTEMIS and THEMIS, scientists now have comprehensive details of the energy's journey through a process that forms the aurora, called a substorm. T...